Atheist Nexus2017-12-14T02:51:18ZSitakalihttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/Sitakalihttp://api.ning.com/files/HWm4iiO9S*91mTrikQLWJuUJe5ClOJ3rL-Ox0uH33WPN5y9YrKxmpL3wLY-CB8xkIZi7D64fK58OMscgy2*iMOUN431t6Vwz/Catwings.jpg?width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://atheistnexus.org/forum/topic/listForContributor?user=ali4lu7jggpo&feed=yes&xn_auth=noThe Big Bang Doesn't Deserve Your Faith. It Also Doesn't Deserve Your Tax Money.tag:atheistnexus.org,2017-12-12:2182797:Topic:27824572017-12-12T19:37:32.901ZSitakalihttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/Sitakali
<p>I once heard a Unitarian minister say Unitarianism is for people who haven't kicked the church habit.</p>
<p></p>
<p>The Big Bang is for people who haven't kicked the faith habit.</p>
<p>It has preachers. They make claims. They spend billions of taxpayers' money looking for evidence and publish press releases claiming to have found it. The only peer reviews their claims get are by their fellow preachers. </p>
<p>And they have their faithful, who have yet to kick their faith habit.</p>
<p>If…</p>
<p>I once heard a Unitarian minister say Unitarianism is for people who haven't kicked the church habit.</p>
<p></p>
<p>The Big Bang is for people who haven't kicked the faith habit.</p>
<p>It has preachers. They make claims. They spend billions of taxpayers' money looking for evidence and publish press releases claiming to have found it. The only peer reviews their claims get are by their fellow preachers. </p>
<p>And they have their faithful, who have yet to kick their faith habit.</p>
<p>If there is a faith gene I'm one of thousands who don't have it. Many of us studied electrical engineering.</p>
<p>The Big Bang will become history when Congress stops spending taxpayer money on it.</p>
<p>Forty five years ago I was one of many who helped stop the flow of taxpayers' money to those who wanted to dam rivers. It was a struggle.</p>
<p></p> What's the difference between a Conservative and Liberal?tag:atheistnexus.org,2017-12-12:2182797:Topic:27823982017-12-12T05:02:16.697ZSitakalihttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/Sitakali
<p>Curious - basic question:</p>
<p>What's the difference between a Conservative and Liberal?</p>
<p>Curious - basic question:</p>
<p>What's the difference between a Conservative and Liberal?</p> Quitting Religion Can Be Difficult; Accepting Atheism Can Also Be Difficult.tag:atheistnexus.org,2017-12-11:2182797:Topic:27823152017-12-11T18:48:30.378ZSitakalihttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/Sitakali
<p>My parents made quitting Catholicism easy; they told me I was going to college because I was too lazy to get a job.</p>
<p>I wasn’t lazy. I had been in the Navy and the Korean War and my GI Bill benefits and various part time jobs were paying all of my costs. My parents were paying nothing. I hurled them and their Catholicism from my life.</p>
<p>Hurling them wasn’t easy. They were neither alcoholics nor insane. They had put a lot of work into raising three kids who had made it into our…</p>
<p>My parents made quitting Catholicism easy; they told me I was going to college because I was too lazy to get a job.</p>
<p>I wasn’t lazy. I had been in the Navy and the Korean War and my GI Bill benefits and various part time jobs were paying all of my costs. My parents were paying nothing. I hurled them and their Catholicism from my life.</p>
<p>Hurling them wasn’t easy. They were neither alcoholics nor insane. They had put a lot of work into raising three kids who had made it into our 20’s. They were putting more work into raising two more kids who were nearing their teens. Putting five kids through Catholic schools was costly. Decades would pass and they would die before I would find a believable reason for their unwarranted verbal and emotional violence.</p>
<p>I quit college, found a good job in the electronics industry, and read enough about xianity and other religions to reject belief without evidence. I resumed college and took a course each semester. I considered atheism but, having studied math and science I wanted something resembling evidence for the claims I heard at meetings of the college atheists. I settled for agnosticism, returned to full time study and earned a degree in math, and after a year in grad school studying math and physics I found work in the computer industry.</p>
<p>There followed a six-year marriage to an agnostic woman who like me wanted no children. More happy decades followed until, after half a century of agnosticism I told some of my friends I was an atheist. I told them I was okay with knowiing I would be “a few chemicals underground”.</p>
<p>Quitting agnosticism for atheism did require some thinking and some changing. I will tell of some of that thinking and changing in later posts.</p>
<p>Did choosing atheism challenge you? If so, how did it challenge you?</p> Is America Warming Up for a Religious War?tag:atheistnexus.org,2017-12-07:2182797:Topic:27823452017-12-07T21:20:58.137ZSitakalihttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/Sitakali
<p>Decades ago I used to say America’s being able to replace a president after four years, or to impeach or remove a president sooner, would discourage a buildup to a religious war. I no longer say that.</p>
<p>What do or don’t you say on this subject?</p>
<p></p>
<p>Decades ago I used to say America’s being able to replace a president after four years, or to impeach or remove a president sooner, would discourage a buildup to a religious war. I no longer say that.</p>
<p>What do or don’t you say on this subject?</p>
<p></p> Do You Want More Democracy Than You Have?tag:atheistnexus.org,2017-12-07:2182797:Topic:27822492017-12-07T17:45:51.829ZSitakalihttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/Sitakali
<p>If you live in one of the 18 states that have the direct initiative and referendum, then on the days you can vote you have democracy."</p>
<p>Happily, I live in one of those states. California. </p>
<p></p>
<p>If you live in one of the other 32 states you are a victim of the people you elect to state legislatures.</p>
<p>I’ve heard that some folks in Wisconsin are working to get the direct initiative and referendum added to their Constitution.</p>
<p>If you live in one of these states, do…</p>
<p>If you live in one of the 18 states that have the direct initiative and referendum, then on the days you can vote you have democracy."</p>
<p>Happily, I live in one of those states. California. </p>
<p></p>
<p>If you live in one of the other 32 states you are a victim of the people you elect to state legislatures.</p>
<p>I’ve heard that some folks in Wisconsin are working to get the direct initiative and referendum added to their Constitution.</p>
<p>If you live in one of these states, do you know if people there are working to do that?</p>
<p></p>
<p>We who live in the United States of America are victims of the people we elect to Congress. Some of those people, especially those in leadership positions, are predators.</p>
<p>I want better than that.</p> "Congrats, Mr. Trump. .... mentioned 8 times as ... sexual predator.tag:atheistnexus.org,2017-12-06:2182797:Topic:27822262017-12-06T17:22:01.607ZSitakalihttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/Sitakali
<p>".... You did make the Time Magazine Person of the Year Issue after all. You are mentioned 8 times in the issue as being a sexual predator!"</p>
<p>A long overdue Tweet.</p>
<p>".... You did make the Time Magazine Person of the Year Issue after all. You are mentioned 8 times in the issue as being a sexual predator!"</p>
<p>A long overdue Tweet.</p> 'baby picture' of universetag:atheistnexus.org,2017-12-06:2182797:Topic:27819512017-12-06T02:06:25.142ZSitakalihttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/Sitakali
<p></p>
<p></p>
<div class="wrap12 story-head" id="content"><div class="colfull"><div class="story-headline"><h1 class="story-title">UBC astrophysicist shares $3M prize for 'baby picture' of universe</h1>
</div>
<h3 class="story-deck">Gary Hinshaw honoured for work on WMAP satellite, which studied universe's age, composition</h3>
<p class="small lighttext"><span class="spaced">By Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press</span> <span class="delimited">Posted: Dec 04, 2017 8:07 AM ET…</span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<div class="wrap12 story-head" id="content"><div class="colfull"><div class="story-headline"><h1 class="story-title">UBC astrophysicist shares $3M prize for 'baby picture' of universe</h1>
</div>
<h3 class="story-deck">Gary Hinshaw honoured for work on WMAP satellite, which studied universe's age, composition</h3>
<p class="small lighttext"><span class="spaced">By Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press</span> <span class="delimited">Posted: Dec 04, 2017 8:07 AM ET</span> <span>Last Updated: Dec 04, 2017 8:35 AM ET</span></p>
<p class="small lighttext"><span><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/breakthrough-prize-1.4431293">http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/breakthrough-prize-1.4431293</a></span></p>
</div>
</div> Emergency -- contact your senators to save renewable energy in UStag:atheistnexus.org,2017-11-30:2182797:Topic:27814662017-11-30T22:55:17.388ZSitakalihttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/Sitakali
<p>Please read this.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.utilitydive.com/news/last-minute-provision-in-senate-tax-bill-could-devastate-renewable-energy/511923/" target="_blank">Last-minute provision in Senate tax bill could 'devastate' renewable energy</a></p>
<p>This is a sneak attack on all renewable energy projects. It would result in an immediate sell off!</p>
<blockquote><p>The BEAT tax would apply starting in 2018, but “credits would be clawed back on [PTC] deals closed as far back as 2008,”…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Please read this.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.utilitydive.com/news/last-minute-provision-in-senate-tax-bill-could-devastate-renewable-energy/511923/" target="_blank">Last-minute provision in Senate tax bill could 'devastate' renewable energy</a></p>
<p>This is a sneak attack on all renewable energy projects. It would result in an immediate sell off!</p>
<blockquote><p>The BEAT tax would apply starting in 2018, but “credits would be clawed back on [PTC] deals closed as far back as 2008,” Martin said.</p>
<p>The letter argues that the retroactive nature of the BEAT provision would mean that <span style="background: yellow;">companies holding tax credits would try “to sell them immediately, even at great discounts, a phenomenon that would flood the marketplace</span> and further damage tax equity markets.” [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Greg Greg Wetstone, president and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy:</p>
<blockquote><p>“It came out of nowhere.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>I just emailed my senators with this message: </p>
<p>The Base Erosion Anti-Abuse Tax (BEAT) provision inserted in a last minute mark-up of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act in the Senate finance committee would affect $50 billion in annual investment in renewable energy projects. Keith Martin, a partner with Norton Rose Fulbright, warns that the BEAT provision would make it harder for “banks and other large companies that are the principal source of tax equity for renewable energy to know, when closing on tax equity investments, whether they will receive the tax credits on offer for making the investments,” The BEAT tax would apply starting in 2018, but “credits would be clawed back on [PTC] deals closed as far back as 2008,” Martin said. I urge you to revise the BEAT provision so that the PTC and ITC are given the same treatment as R&amp;D tax credits. That, the trade groups say, would restore the certainty that underpins the tax equity market and, by extension, the growth in renewable energy investment.</p>
<p></p>
<p>I urge you to take similar immediate action.</p>
<p>This ice pick-to-the neck assasination of the US renewable energy industry was probably long planned at the Heartland Institute.</p> The Pro-Truth Pledgetag:atheistnexus.org,2017-11-29:2182797:Topic:27814382017-11-29T14:53:43.260ZSitakalihttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/Sitakali
<p><a href="https://www.protruthpledge.org/?utm_source=eSkeptic&amp;utm_campaign=7bf26f20da-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_11_28&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_8c0a740eb4-7bf26f20da-73460777&amp;mc_cid=7bf26f20da&amp;mc_eid=d17b30179f" target="_blank">Will You Take the Pro-Truth Pledge?</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.protruthpledge.org/?utm_source=eSkeptic&amp;utm_campaign=7bf26f20da-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_11_28&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_8c0a740eb4-7bf26f20da-73460777&amp;mc_cid=7bf26f20da&amp;mc_eid=d17b30179f" target="_blank">Will You Take the Pro-Truth Pledge?</a></p> “They” Don’t Earn Power; They Are Given It.tag:atheistnexus.org,2017-11-29:2182797:Topic:27814312017-11-29T08:31:21.815ZSitakalihttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/Sitakali
“Nobody spoke a word that day. But that’s the way it was anyway. If you said more than five words, they said you were a good-for-nothing blabbermouth.”<br />
<br />
Those words are from the movie, The Inheritors, set in feudal 19th century Germany. I saw the movie twenty four years after my father died and instantly knew the reason he seldom spoke. He worked.<br />
<br />
- - - - - - - - - -<br />
<br />
Who has not been told “They say....”?<br />
<br />
The “they” who said something did not earn power. They were given power by people who…
“Nobody spoke a word that day. But that’s the way it was anyway. If you said more than five words, they said you were a good-for-nothing blabbermouth.”<br />
<br />
Those words are from the movie, The Inheritors, set in feudal 19th century Germany. I saw the movie twenty four years after my father died and instantly knew the reason he seldom spoke. He worked.<br />
<br />
- - - - - - - - - -<br />
<br />
Who has not been told “They say....”?<br />
<br />
The “they” who said something did not earn power. They were given power by people who saw themselves as having little or no power.<br />
<br />
To clarify, what is power? Dictionaries define it with something like “the ability to produce desired results.”<br />
<br />
Religion is about power. What kind of power did religion once have in your life? What kind of power does religion now have in your life?